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After 72 flights, NASA says goodbye to Ingenuity helicopter

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The Ingenuity helicopter achieved much in its nearly three years on Mars. | Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech The Ingenuity helicopter, the first ever aircraft to fly on another planet, ended its nearly three-year journey on Mars, said NASA yesterday. The helicopter, originally intended as a technology demonstration, has surpassed all of NASA’s expectations and completed dozens more flights than originally planned.  While the Ingenuity remains upright and in communication with ground controllers, it will not be able to fly again. NASA received images of its Jan. 18 flight this week showing that one or more of its rotor blades had sustained damage during landing, making the helicopter no longer capable of flight.  “The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to end,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a release . “That remarkable helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do best – make the impossible, possi
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Update on AgTech automation at CNHI

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The Robot Report Podcast · Update on AgTech automation at CNHI The Robot Report Podcast · 2023 year in review: GenAI, humanoids dominate robotics industry   In Episode 138 of The Robot Report Podcast, co-hosts Mike Oitzman and Eugene Demaitre catch up with Marc Kermisch, global chief digital and information officer at CNH Industrial, or CNHI. Kermisch takes us through the latest developments at CNHI in agriculture autonomy and digitization, explaining how robots and data can help farmers and growers improve yields and efficiency. We also recap the latest robotics news and walk through an update from robotics and automation companies that attended this month’s 2024 CES show. News of the week Locus Robotics layoffs The mobile robot maker last week confirmed that it had a “small, targeted RIF,” or reduction in force. North American robot orders dropped last year, according to the Association for Advancing Automation ( A3 ). Warehouse construction also declined by 25% i
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igus launches double-shaft stepper motor for robot precision

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The versatile double-shaft stepper motor enables two functionalities in one compact device. Source: igus GmbH Robot applications depend on the precision of their primary components. igus GmbH last week said it has developed a new double-shaft stepper motor for its drylin linear technology. The Cologne, Germany-based company said the double-shaft design allows for precise control over linear motion, enabling a range of automation, transfer-station, and format-adjustment applications. “This design offers greater flexibility in the connection and drive of mechanical components,” explained Rene Erdmann, head of the drylin E business unit at igus, in a release . “We can now drive two mechanical loads, such as two parallel linear axes, with just one motor.” igus, whose U.S. headquarters are in Rumford, R.I., said its new stepper motor  provides an easy introduction to automation for developers, machine builders, and integrators. igus supports precise, versatile robot applications Step
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Jacobi Robotics shortens robot programming cycle in partnership with Formic

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Jacobi Studio is a web app designed to ease robot project setup. | Credit: Jacobi Robotics Jacobi Robotics Inc. today came out of stealth with the launch of a new software product using artificial intelligence to improve the programming time and performance of robot applications. The Berkeley, Calif.-based startup also announced a partnership with Formic Technologies Inc.  Jacobi Robotics said it is building on breakthroughs from research labs at UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University to provide tools to enable engineers to deploy robust solutions faster than existing tools. Conventional robotic systems take weeks or months to deploy, it said in a release . Co-founder Yahav Avigal described Jacobi’s mission to The Robot Report : “Originally, the motivation was to make things faster and more efficient. But when we went to the industry, we saw how system integrators were working. We saw that it takes a very long time for startups to go from an idea to a deployed fleet of robots.
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5 robotics startups Bill Gates is excited about

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This image was created using Microsoft’s Bing AI Image Creator. There has been $90 billion invested in robotics companies in the last five years, according to F-Prime Capital’s 2023 State of Robotics Report . With more than 1,250 companies currently within the industry, it can be hard to sift through them all to pinpoint the most exciting startups. However, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates just shared five startups he thinks are making robots a reality. Gates noted that he has been more interested in companies that are working to solve dexterity and mobility issues with robots. With recent advances in generative AI, robots are further behind on those kinds of issues than they are on their ability to think, Gates says.  1. Agility Robotics It’s no surprise Agility Robotics was first on Gates’ list. The Corvallis, Ore.-based company’s Digit humanoid is being tested by GXO Logistics and Amazon . This sets it ahead of its humanoid competition, a field that has seen a lot of gro
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San Francisco files lawsuit to pump brakes on robotaxis

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This lawsuit puts Waymo’s final permit in San Francisco in jeopardy. | Source: Waymo Robotaxis have had a bumpy ride in San Francisco since companies first began giving public rides in February 2022. Now, the city of San Francisco has filed a lawsuit against the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the organization responsible for regulating autonomous vehicles in the state, to drastically reduce the number of robotaxis on the city’s roads, according to The Washington Post . The lawsuit centers around the CPUC’s decision in August 2023 to grant both GM’s Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo their final permits in the state. These permits allowed the companies to charge for rides, expand the hours of operation and service area, and add as many robotaxis to their fleets as they wanted. The lawsuit is asking the CPUC to reconsider its decision and whether it was compliant with the law, according to The Washington Post . San Francisco city attorney David Chiu filed an administr
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Bluewhite raises $39M to expand autonomous tractors to farms worldwide

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  Bluewhite creates autonomy packages that convert a standard tractor, like this John Deere 5125ML, into a fully autonomous solution. | Credit: The Robot Report Bluewhite this week announced that it secured $39 million in Series C financing. The Tel Aviv, Israel.-based company said it already works with more than 20 of the leading permanent crop growers in the U.S. It plans to use the funding to further scale its autonomous tractor and other agricultural systems and to expand into new markets worldwide. “Having already proven the commercial success of our solution with growers, this new round of funding will enable us to continue providing sustainable autonomous innovation to more markets and work with different types of partners across the ecosystem to impact every level of the food supply chain,” said Ben Alfi , co-founder and CEO of Bluewhite, in a release . “This next phase of our growth will help provide unprecedented transparency throughout the food supply chain and ensure
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